The Waitangi Tribunal is slamming the Crown for letting our rivers and lakes get so polluted and for essentially blocking Māori from helping to fix the problem.
It has just released a landmark report into National Freshwater and Geothermal Resources that highlights a raft of failures in the Resource Management Act.
The tribunal is calling for sweeping changes that include recognising Māori proprietary rights, allocating them freshwater and making council's work with hapū and iwi.
RNZ Māori news correspondent Leigh-Marama McLachlan reports.
